Sunday, August 8, 2010

Ground Zero Mosque articles

We have to respect and honor the sentiments of every one who was a victim of terrorism and their friends and relatives who have suffered through this. The Ground Zero Mosque is engaging the American Public and bringing out emotions and intellectualism to the forefront to tackle the issue of co-existence. The questions abound; what is freedom of religion, what is first amendment, what kind of nation are we, do we want to emulate the very nations we condemn or should we lead the world and set the standards for co-existence. What does it take to build orderly societies? What does it take for you, me and others to feel safe and live in peace? We have to consciously create institutions and systems that would become a catalyst to a positive change and bring about cohesive functioning of the society. It is our duty to keep law and order and faithfully guard the safety of every citizen.

This issue is engaging the American Public, both for and against, and as a Pluralist who believes in co-existence is the way for sustaining harmony, I will save the links of articles that come across my knowledge as a reference for the researchers.

In behalf of the men and women who have lost their loved ones, a few are genuinely opposing the building of the communtiy Center, a few are Altruistic and want the center to stand out as a beaocon of hope and peace and yet a few are falling prey to the political opportunists. At the end, if we envision an America that is good for all, we have to consider dropping the “me, me, and me” and yeild to what is good for America, the land of the free.

While the tragedy will never fade from our memories, we have to consider the political opportunists who are opposing the Muslim Center near Ground Zero? The revelations are as clear as the day light, the right wing politicians have gone berserk and hanging on to tiny branches to save their political careers, and it is an abuse of Patriotism to have political gains. If you have surfed through the internet, you might reasonably conclude that the ones opposing are the right wing Republicans like Palin, Gingrich, Paladino, Corker, Tancredo, Rowe, McCain and others. They continue to fall in the abyss of ignorance and are out of touch with the American public. The pied piper Limbaugh had led them once and his cooked up support will blind them again.

Until they come up with concrete alternative solutions for the difficulties our nation is facing, they will continue to hang on to anything they "perceive" will save them. The American public does not like divisive politics and I hope they understand and honor it, and become conflict mitigaters and goodwill nurturers.

If Saudi is a bad country, why do we want to emulate them? Should some one point their fingers and say the same things about us, we say to the tin pot dictators and fascist regimes?

To ban any Muslim presence from the neighborhood because of the actions of 19 terrorists is to fall into the same flawed ideology of the terrorist who label all Americans as evil.

America has led the world in Science, technology, innovation and has remained a beacon of morality and a defender of human rights. Our constitution is an exemplary document of democracy and now the time has come to lead the world in Pluralism and co-existence.

We have to be a model to other nations. The other nations need to look up to us and not the other way around. We need to set higher standards of civility and NOT stoop down to the level of Talibans or some dictators and monarchs around the world. If we want other nations to behave, we need to lead the way. We need to stand tall and on a moral high ground and be an example of morality and civility to the world.

This is the very reason we need to support the Mosque to show to the world what freedom of religion means: to demonstrate our spirit of liberty and set an example of how a nation treats its minorities.

Bin Laden pulled two of our symbolic buildings down and murdered nearly 3000 Americans; He is still at large. We need to find this criminal and punish him instead of creating a deficit and ruining our economy with the war. Bin Laden is the most hated guy for American Muslims than anyone else; he has provoked prejudice towards Muslims and has made their lives miserable.

The right wingers on the other hand will pull all of us Americans down from the moral high grounds we have held for nearly a century and sink us in bigotry. We have stood up for the Holocaust survivors, the refugees and the oppressed people in Bosnia and elsewhere in the world.

6 comments:

ghulammuhammed3 wrote:Neda wrote:'There were many mosques in the United States before Sept. 11; their mere existence did not bring cross-cultural understanding.' Well, neither did they bring any cross-cultural mis-understanding before 9/11. Now there is an extra need to work against those misunderstanding. We cannot call it a day and close the chapter. People die and still life has to go on. For a handful of criminals, why should entire Muslim world suffer collective punishment of stigmatizing at the hands of some vested interest lobbies that wish to perpetrate the blame game.8/8/2010 12:14:08 PM

Dear All,The views of relatives of one victim are not more valid than anothervictim. If one wishes to be fair then those family members of thedeceased that are supporting it should be quoted as well. That wouldbe journalistic honesty and a fair way to debate. However not to meanany disrespect for victims of any crime of course there is a limit towhat they are entitled to. If a particular state law does not havedeath penalty then the wishes of the victims family would have nobearing on it.I also find it contradictory that she wishes the site to be one forreflection and dialouge between faiths to promote harmony but thengoes on to oppose the project which aims at this very goal!I would like to warn those who wish to take this slippery slope of"respect/sensitivity" argument. How far this will go. Should I stoptraveling by air because it makes my fellow passengers uncomfortable?What about carrying a copy of Quran and reading it in a public lounge?I fail to understand that why we cannot see the trap which is designedto treat all Muslims as coconspirators of OBL. I refuse to take anyresponsibility for actions of OBL.Now back to the discussion of the particular group that is supportingCardoba project. Do we think that all the secret agencies and lawenforcement are cluless and dumb? If these people had any terroristlinks or even inclinations those would have been exposed by now afterbeing under the microscope.We can also talk about reconciliation process. I was in NY when thefamous handshake between Arafat and Ruben at Camp David flashed acrossthe globe. A number of my Jewish friends were unhappy at the gestureshouting Arafat has blood on his hand. It was Ted Koppel who had thecourage to set the record straight. The world is a little better placeafter that I believe. In the same spirit we should look at thisproject.Ideas must be fought with ideas. No personal attacks promoteunderstanding. Nothing personal against those who have opposing viewsbut only if they don't mind the critical analysis of their views.Zahid Imran

This was in response to the Jewish call to support the mosque. This note at Washington post was powerful and logical.

The lack of logic in opposition to the Islamic Center is baffling. It is compared to putting a large cross near Auchwitz. The situation of Ground Zero and the situation of Auchwitz is very different. With the area within a mile of Ground Zero, we are talking about a large part of lower NYC including the Battery Park apartment complex, City Hall and Wall Street.We don't talk about what the Nazis did as if Germans did it. We talk about Nazi atrocities not German atrocities. I am sure that Sarah Palin and her supporters would not refer to them as Christian atrocities. Yet we do that kind of thing with 9/11. It was done by Wahhabis who are a particular group of Sunni Muslims. They persecute Sufis yet people are holding a Sufi Imam responsible for what happened on 9/11. We don't talk about Wahhabi terrorists doing it or Saudi terrorists doing it, we talk about Muslim terrorists doing it or Islamic terrorists doing it. Given where that has led, we should choose our words more carefully.At most Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan are responsible for this. So why talk about an Imam from Kuwait as if Kuwaitis did it because they resented what we did in the first Gulf War? Do people like Sarah Palin remember that War? Do they understand the difference between Sufis, whose ideas arise out of Platonism and Jewish mysticism, and Wahhabis? Should people who do understand those things and hence support the Islamic Center be sneered at in the WSJ as the Enlightened Class?Posted by: DaveM62 | August 8, 2010 2:07 PM

The pastors and Rabbis from Texas stood up for the rights of other Americans. Your voice adds strength to the belief that a majority of us are inherently good people.

The indelible message of Passover needs to be re-learnt by all of us.Last week I wrote here at the Washington Post about the issue and raised similar questions. http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/07/on_mosque_us_should_stand_on_moral_high_ground.html The majority of Americans of all hues are recognizing the value of inclusion to create safer and sustainable societies, the right wingers are loosing it out and have resorted invoking a negative sentiment over the issue. I hope they quickly learn to be in tune with the American public who not like divisive policies and cheap opportunism.I do hope the right wingers recognize that Bin Laden is hated intensely by Muslim Majority more than any other people; he brought misery to the ordinary American Muslim and messed up the name of Islam. Of course, good humans such as you know the distinction. We have stood up for the Holocaust survivors, the refugees and the oppressed people in Bosnia and elsewhere in the world and we need to continue to stand on moral high ground. Let the world look up to our model of co-existence and follow us, rather than stoop down to the level of dictators and fascists.

I think it is fortuitous that a Masjid is being planner near a place and there is so much support for the Masjid being there. It is strange that this should be getting oppossed by those who have been seeking build peace and justice. I stronger agree and happy to note that majority of the American are recognising the values of inclusion to create safer,better and cohesive societies with freedom or religion. The call of Mike Ghouse for taking up the moral high ground is timely and it is better that this should be respected by all concerned with safer,better and just world.

My Dream

I have a dream, a dream to strengthen the pluralistic values of America, and the desire to encourage the community of nations to review our values of Liberty, Justice and co-existence as catalysts for prosperity.

No community or a nation can have undue advantages over others. Such benefits are temporary and deleterious to lasting peace.

We have to maintain a healthy balance within our communities and with all nations, what is good for America, has got to be good for the world and vice versa.

SPEAKER, THINKER, WRITER

Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker, writer, optimist, educator and an activist of Pluralism, Interfaith, Islam, India and Civil Societies. He manages the Foundation for Pluralism and World Muslim Congress and offers Pluralistic solutions to the media and the public on issues of the day.

He is available to speak at your school, university, work place, seminars or place of worship and interfaith gatherings.

He was a speaker and a moderator at the 2009 Parliament of Worlds Religions in Melbourne, Australia, and speaker at Universal Peace Federation's peace initiative in Jerusalem in August 2010

Mike is a conflict mitigater and a goodwill nurturer, all his work is reflected at three websites & twenty two Blogs listed at

http://www.mikeghouse.net/

INTERFAITH SPEAKER

It is my duty

It is my patriotic duty to speak up. Had each one of us spoken, we would not have sacrficed 3000 of our sons and daughters, and massacred a million Iraqi's. Unfortunately, we have to carry this burden on our conscience for the genocide we shamelessly watched and stood by. What are we going to tell our kids? That we were chickens and did not have the guts to speak up?

With the exception of Congressman Murtha and Barack Obama, the senate and the house were scared to death to speak up. Thanks God, November 7, 2006 gave us all new freedom. We need to elect people who are not afraid to speak up, they will be true patriots to our nation and to our values of freedom and democracy.

In my blog, I will be writing things reflective of our values of Justice, freedom and liberty.

Committment

Personally, I am committed to promoting goodwill amongst people, I believe knowledge leads to understanding, and understanding to acceptance and appreciation of a different point of view.

If we can learn to accept and respect the God given uniqueness of each one of the 7 billion of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.

Ray Bradbury "Until one is committed, there is hesitancy... Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.… Whatever you can do or dream that you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."

and this "If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down."

Mike Ghouse " Whatever you do in life, do it wholeheartedly, there is joy in it for every one around including ourselves"

Taking a principled stand

Please be aware that I will do my best to take a principled stand on Justice. Which simply means no matter who, what or where there is injustice, I will speak out.

Most of our policies are based on short sightedness, What is our gain? Who can we please and how can we remain in our power positions? Be it our President, Congressman, Senator or a public officer, I will speak out.

When it comes to other nations, if they are non-inclusive and mistreat any segment of their population, I will speak out.

I will defend the goodness of every religion, religion is the reason we have relative peace in the world, without which it will be chaotic. For the crimes of mankind, let's find the culprit and laser bark at him, and not his family, his race, his ethnicity or his religion.

I am a moderate Republican, and my first loyalty is to democracy before the blinding loyalty to my party. Obama is the right man in our history for our nation at this time and I have supported him all the way, the more I know about him, the more I feel he is the right man for the job.My thought process is similar to Obama's. In fact he has used the same words in his speeches that I wrote on my blog a week ahead of him.ISRAEL & PALESTINE

Thank God, I have no barriers between me and another human being.

Time permitting I want to see all points of view with an open mind, ultimately it is me or you, who is going to feel right or wrong about things and the pangs I will endure for realizing that I believed in the wrong thing.

No Imam, Rabbi, Pundit or Pastor is responsible for my actions and finding the truth is my own responsibility. Watching a Hamas movie does not make me a Hamas supporter or a Zionist movie would make me a Zionist supporter. We need to raise about such petty pegs.

My loyalty is to justice; and not to Israel or Palestine, which means support is based on issues and items and not wholesale blind support or un-support.

We do not have peace in Middleeast because of our loyalties to entities and not Justice. Every one wants peace, but they are not going about the right way.

Speaker and Writer

Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker, Writer and a Moderator.

He is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing Pluralism, interfaith, Islam, India, Multiculturism, Terrorism, Peace, Politics and Civic issues. He co-chairs the center for interfaith inquiry of the Memnosyne Foundation and presides the Foundation for Pluralism. He is the president of World Muslim Congress a think tank with a simple theme: Good for Muslims and good for the world and vice-Versa.

His comments, news analysis and columns can be found on the Web sites and Blogs listed at his personal web site www.MikeGhouse.net . He has authored over 600 articles on Pluralism, interfaith, Islam, India and peace.

His life mission is to open people’s hearts and minds towards fellow beings by mitigating conflicts and nurturing goodwill. He is a peace maker and an educator with two Master degrees and working on his doctorate in Psychology. He has two books on the horizon ; Basic Islam- everything you want to know about Islam and Pluralism, a text book on Pluralism 101.

Mission

My civic Mission is to influence the policy makers of our country, to put our nation on the path of fairness, justice and equity in dealing with our domestic and foreign affairs. "Just" dealings have the power to take us, and the World into the next century with relative peace and prosperity.